Pandora for Windows Phone 8 is now available and we go hands on

Pandora music has always been one of those apps that served as a metric for mobile platforms: so long as Windows Phone did not have it, it was behind. Luckily, last October Microsoft finally announced that indeed Pandora was coming to Windows Phone 8 in “early 2013” and a few weeks ago we had hints it was near.

Well, that day is today.

Yes, the official Pandora app for Windows Phone 8 can be downloaded from the Store and is now available in the US, Australia and New Zealand. What’s more, Microsoft carried through on their promise of an ad-free experience throughout the year. Indeed users won’t have to pay a dime to experience the premium Pandora experience on their Windows Phone.

We’ve had an early chance to play with the app extensively and we’re impressed. It’s fast, smooth and the Live Tiles work perfectly. Having access to that amount of music (and entertainment like comedy) on our Windows Phone is quite fantastic, especially since the audio fidelity is quite high. Nothing in the app feels “ported” or rushed but rather built from the ground up for Windows Phone 8.

From doublewide Tiles that flip to reveal artist and track info, to the ability to pin numerous stations to your Start screen, the Windows Phone 8 Pandora app has it. If a track is playing that you want to purchase, simply head into the Xbox Music Store with one-click to buy. Equally, the app integrates with the social API on Windows Phone, meaning you can share the track you are listening to with ease to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or share the station with your contacts directly.

Watch our video hands on with the app to see Pandora in action, or just head here to the Windows Phone Store to get it now. Full press release below. [Note: links may take awhile to go "live" but it should happen soon enough].

Pandora Extends Mobile Reach with Windows Phone

OAKLAND, Calif., March 21, 2013 (8:30 a.m. EST) – Pandora (NYSE: P), the leading internet radio service, today announced the availability of its popular mobile app on the Windows Phone platform, extending the company’s leadership position as one of the top apps across all connected devices.

Through more than 1,000 integrations including smartphones and consumer electronics devices, Pandora continues to be an industry leader in mobile and device usage. More than 140 million registered users have accessed Pandora via a smartphone or tablet and more than 75 percent of Pandora's listening occurs on a mobile or other connected device.

Pandora listeners on Windows Phone 8 will enjoy ad-free personalized radio at no cost, courtesy of Microsoft, through the 2013 calendar year in addition to features unique to the platform, including Live Tiles and Kid’s Corner:

Live Tiles make the Windows Phone experience highly personalized, allowing people to easily access the features and apps where they spend most of their time. Pandora listeners can pin their favorite personalized radio stations right to the Start screen of their phone to see what’s currently playing at a glance and for easy access to stations recently played without having to launch the app.

Kid’s Corner offers a worry free way for Windows Phone customers to share their smartphone with the entire family. Launching Pandora in Kid’s Corner will automatically activate the explicit content filter for instant kid-friendly listening.

The extraordinary embrace of personalized radio on smartphones has enabled Pandora to reach massive scale in mobile listening and over 1 in 3 smartphone users in the US have listened to Pandora in the past month.

Pandora Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joe Kennedy said, “Pandora has reached a level of ubiquity that allows music fans to tune-in to the best internet radio anytime, anywhere and we are thrilled to bring the experience to even more mobile listeners through the highly personalized platform that Microsoft has created with Windows Phone.”

“Pandora pioneered the personal music experience with individualized stations and it’s a perfect match for Windows Phone, the first truly personal smartphone experience with unique features like Live Tiles and Kids Corner,” said Joe Belfiore, VP, Windows Phone Division, Microsoft Corp. “Pandora for Windows Phone takes advantage of these features and more to deliver a free personalized music experience exclusive to the platform,” he continued.

Starting today, listeners in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand can download Pandora for Windows Phone 8 from Windows Phone Store at www.windowsphone.com/pandora. More details, including a video are available via the Microsoft Windows Phone News Room at www.windowsphone.com/blog.

ABOUT PANDORA

Pandora (NYSE: P) gives people music and comedy they love anytime, anywhere, through connected devices. Personalized stations launch instantly with the input of a single "seed" - a favorite artist, song, or genre. The Music Genome Project®, a deeply detailed hand-built musical taxonomy, powers the personalization of Pandora® internet radio by using musicological "DNA" and constant listener feedback to craft personalized stations from a growing collection of more than one million tracks. Tens of millions of people turn on Pandora every month to hear music they love. www.pandora.com

an intelligent comment from a Sooner. Pandora on WP. Better look up to see if the sky is falling!! :) In all seriousness, agree with you completely. Its much more than just having the Pandora service available. While I'm a huge user of Pandora, I'm more excited that it is one less thing that will keep people from considering a WP8 device. The more WP users the more motivation devs have to get their apps onto the platform.

haha. North of the Red and Southeast of I-35 lol
It definitely does feel weird. I grew up a Longhorns fan and most of my friends and family bleed burnt orange. Have many friends in Norman and a few in Stillwater even. And my wife is a Raider. Losing all of those natural rivalries is tough and I was against it at first but after a season it seems like a brilliant move so far. Really if nothing else, it helped us get out of our own way with our obsession with only beating Texas. Now that we no longer play them, every game is a must win. Talent has always been there, even if not on par recruiting with Texas and OU in previous years. Coaching and proper mindset was not until the move to the SEC. Hopefully the success continues and hopefully we will be playing both Texas and OU in the future, either as conference mates if the Big 12 doesn't make it as currently constructed or in bowl games.

Wells and Capital One both are needed. The only one of my online accounts I can manage is BofA. If they can do it no reason the other major banks shouldn't. I could see smaller banks waiting for future platform growth, but for the small amount it would cost the major banks to develop an app, it's really a no risk move for them.

It's better than the paid version of Pandora! I tried Pandora, went back to Graffiti. Pandora gave me the skip limit crap, even though I'm a Pandora One subscriber. With Graffiti, I skip to my heart's content.

or maybe you can use it and show pandora devs that there's a demand so they'll keep the API's for WP8 Updated and release regular updates. or maybe use it to show OTHER developers of other App's and Games that there is a demand for the Windows Phone Users for popular apps such as Pandora so maybe they'll see a user base and develop for us aswell? idk just saying.

The people.at Pandora kept telling me that there was no demand for a windows app, which I called their story as bullshit and directed them to wpc forums etc. I guess they finally gave in after so much hate mail.

I honestly don't understand the whole "there aren't enough users on WP for us to create an app" argument these companies are spewing. People try it, don't see the apps they need, and then go back to Android or iOS or whatever else it is they use. It makes no sense. Why wouldn't you want your company to be one of the trailblazers on Windows Phone? Case in point, iheartradio is losing users due to not having an app out. Now people will get used to Pandora if it's good enough. Same with Mint...now people are trying PageOnce.
I have had a more stable and satisfying experience on WP8 than on my iPhone 4 and my company gave me a Galaxy S3 to carry and I prefer my Windows Phone. They are stunting it's growth by refusing to stick their necks out. Can't the revenues from all of the millions of users on iOS and Android cover development costs for porting an app to WP? I have no idea how the economics work in app development, but if some of the generic alternatives out there can be made in someones spare time, how can a large company like Wells Fargo, not put out an app?

I find it ridiculous that companies don't want to make an app for wp8. Comcast told me that because the Tech is so new that they can't keep up and that they may look into it, which I found that answer to be complete and utter bullshit.

so I asked them why they released an app for crappberry even though that the h is newer than wp8? All he could.say was that wp8 tech is too new. By that time I got so fed up with his bullshit I told him that their lack of care to make their video feed work on wp8 and their total bullshit answers and excuses is a driving factor for me to leave Comcast(that and many other reasons they continuously fail at).

I do agree for those that have been with us but Xbox music is expensive Pandora is free and so used to it Nokia music is alright I mainly feel bad for devs that built a 3rd party app for Pandora but metro radio was ok but very buggy not familiar with slacker or lastfm

Not whining just a minor frustration :)
If pandora got released like any other app, then i wouldn't be bothered that it was US only. But when you have a high profile person like Belfiore going on about something is coming then it is a bit frustrating when it is an app that only a small fraction of users can actually use.

I changed the region on my device and that let me download it on my UK Microsoft Account =)
Only problem is that when I sign in it gives me a region error; now I need is for Microsoft to support VPN's then it'll work...not sure if a proxy will work, but I don't know of a US Proxy server that I can actually trust to test it out =P

I use them based on certain uses. Xbox Music to listen to Music that I downloaded online and Local Artist Music that isn't on a streaming service, Spotify for all my Major Music and Playlist, and MetroRadio (Now Pandora lol) for just listening to find new songs/artist I like and if I'm having a party or get together (so no ones being rude and putting only the music they listen to on)

Pandora is free and Nokia music is free and I get the free thing but my monthly bill is high enough if Xbox music would lower price or incorporate with my Xbox live account I would consider but Xbox music is expensive

Pandora is only available in the US where Windows Phone has a lower market share than in Europe for example.
And in Europe, Pandora is not available.
Isn't this funny?
However this app is truly welcomed as Pandora is very popular in US.
Now only if Instagram and 2 or 3 more titles would come, this hopefully make people stop complaining about missing apps.
It's a very good and healtfy sign for Windows Phone platform because having a big name in the marketplace makes other big names create their app for Windows Phone too.
That's the kind of news WIndows Phone news. Kudos to Belfiore and the team which made this happen!
They need to accelarate the pace of releasing this apps, they lost some momentum making people wait for the apps.

Pandora doesn't have MetroRadio's disabling the lock screen and the Zunish screen saver and wallpaper. This is very cool for keeping your screen alive while driving...enables "likes" or "dislikes" without having to turn your device back on. Developer was also very responsive to personal requests.

Regardless of what you prefer and your opinion on the app's performance, this is huge news. When Every single device I have in my house, including my blu-ray player, has a pandora app, but my phone doesn't, it's a problem.

I wouldn't call it lame. Official apps are needed to show legitimacy and support. Besides, there are a lot of people that prefer official apps to third party apps. Subjective opinions aside, this is great news for WP.

Well, it certainly looks like all the official-app snobs pretend like they couldn't access Pandora, etc., before the official apps came out. The fact is, third-party apps exist for quite a few services and it's dishonest to pretend that "I don't have Pandora on my WP" when the FACT is that you could have accessed Pandora all along. I had enough nasty email exchanges with the folks at Pandora over this that I could care less if they ever came out with an official app. And, now that they have, it's simply lame. All you official-app snobs need to get a clue.

It's not the notion that you couldn't access the service, it's the branding and reputation that comes with an official app. Whether or not you like Pandora, them releasing an official app is great for the platform. It's one less app to worry about "not having". It's nice to say "Yes, we have it" versus "No, but here are alternatives" because you'll usually lose people at "No".

Curious...does anyone know the main differences between this and Nokia Music offering? I'm just wondering if it's worth a download or not. If it's the same, i'll just stick with Nokia Music. Let me know. Thanks.

I've not used Nokia Music, so I can't compare to it. As a Pandora user, I find their suggestion engine excellent in discovering variety (and reducing repetition). I say give it a shot since it's free (and ad-free through the rest of the year).

Not sure why people are whining at Microsoft/Windows Phone about this being US only.
Pandora isn't available outside of the US on any device because they are unwilling/unable to pay UK royalties. This isn't new, the UK got cut off back in 2008 so I don't understand why people seem so shocked by it.

I have both Metro Radio and Radio Controlled on my Lumia 900 and my Lumia 920. Both work very well, but I prefer the look of Radio Controlled better. I like BOTH much better than that official Pandora app.

Man this is great, I don't understand all the hate. If you don't like it or use it, good for you. This is a huge name bringing an official app to windows phone. I know a ton of people who love Pandora and this could help attract more users to the platform.

Why not use the Samsung phone?
I think it's great they use it!
It's great to see almost the exact flaghsip Android phone running Windows Phone.
great for the Android fans for example to know there is really a similar option :)

Bleh US only service. So far this week of teased hyped apps has been an update to skype which is still behind its ios counterpart, 2 games we knew were coming which have been out 3-4 months on other platforms, and a US only service. All positive steps for the platform sure, but certainly don't deserve a special fanfare... Hopefully Joe Belfiore unleashes a big app tomorrow.

Every time a previously demanded app finally makes it to the platform, why so many comments about apps that are not there. Instagram! Instagram! - I hope MS will get FB to do a Instagram app just so that we will have less complaints about it not being there.

I think the same way too.
Also, I personally don't see too much value of Instagram, I don't need it, but I understand people want it.
Microsoft should help by accelerating the creation of these popular services. They lost a big momentum with that.
Windows Phone is almost as good as any other platform.